Japan's Nikkei recovers after Trump's speech but gains limited

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

TOKYO, March 1 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks recovered from intraday lows on Wednesday afternoon after U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress offered few details or surprises on tax and spending policies.

The Nikkei share average rose 1.3 percent to 19,366.88 in early afternoon trade, up from the morning close of 19,222.56. But the index was trading narrowly.

In a speech that ended before the Japanese equities market reopened for trade in the afternoon, Trump pledged to overhaul the immigration system, improve jobs and wages for Americans and promised “massive” tax relief to the middle class and tax cuts for companies.

“The speech didn’t contain anything drastic or extraordinary, so the first impression to investors was that it lacked something new,” said Eiji Kinouchi, chief technical analyst at Daiwa Securities. “But it was not particularly disappointing either, so investors are having a hard time finding direction so they are just recovering some of their positions that they sold before the speech.”